Provinciale Statenverkiezingen 2023

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 1000 Dutch political advertisers during the 2023 Provinciale Statenverkiezingen (Provincial elections) to better understand how campaigns use different targeting methods made available by Meta. To do this, we used data from the Meta Ad Library, using the new ‘Audience’ data which gives some detail on how pages target their ads.

To better understand the regional election, we kept only advertisers who:

  1. Advertised in the last 7 days (Mar 8th - Mar 14th 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023)

Note: Meta only provides 7, 30 and 90 days windows for the targeting data in their Ad Library. Meta’s data also lags by a few days. We will update this report as soon as new data is available.

Topline Statistics

Meta

Daily Spend

Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend €804,071 and ran 6845 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

PvdA

43


1. Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) (€58,911)
2. PvdA Zuid-Holland (€25,552)
3. PvdA Noord Holland (€11,056)

698

€136,634

GroenLinks

26


1. GroenLinks (€113,963)
2. GroenLinks Zuid-Holland (€6,446)
3. GroenLinks Brabant (€2,962)

414

€130,047

CDA

39


1. CDA Noord-Holland (€15,002)
2. CDA Zuid-Holland (€14,045)
3. CDA Provincie Utrecht (€8,981)

715

€100,658

VVD

53


1. VVD (€34,318)
2. Limburgse VVD (€15,410)
3. VVD Provincie Utrecht (€5,457)

989

€83,889

SP

15


1. SP (€59,388)
2. Lilian Marijnissen (€4,191)
3. SP Noord-Brabant (€1,032)

429

€66,127

FvD

4


1. Forum voor Democratie -FVD (€41,727)
2. Thierry Baudet (€2,018)
3. Wybren van Haga (€763)

505

€44,608

Volt Nederland

4


1. Volt Nederland (€28,255)
2. Volt Noord-Holland (€6,974)
3. Volt Brabant (€4,639)

1,143

€43,755

D66

22


1. D66 Noord-Holland (€7,358)
2. D66 Zuid-Holland (€3,920)
3. D66 Provincie Utrecht (€3,435)

221

€34,713

PvdD

14


1. Partij voor de Dieren (€21,830)
2. Partij voor de Dieren Zuid-Holland (€3,367)
3. Partij voor de Dieren Noord-Holland (€2,402)

303

€34,332

BVNL

7


1. Belang van Nederland - BVNL (€28,407)
2. BVNL Gelderland (€490)
3. Arjan de Kok - BVNL (€329)

97

€29,949

BBB

7


1. BBB BoerBurgerBeweging (€24,941)
2. BBB Boerburgerbeweging Noord-Holland (€1,233)
3. BBB Boerburgerbeweging Zeeland (€554)

77

€27,527

Ja21

4


1. Ja21 (€13,368)
2. JA21 Noord-Holland (€2,874)
3. JA21 Drenthe (€314)

344

€16,696

ChristenUnie

20


1. ChristenUnie Flevoland (€3,690)
2. ChristenUnie (€2,653)
3. ChristenUnie-SGP Noord-Brabant (€1,500)

266

€14,399

PVV

12


1. Geert Wilders (€9,054)
2. PVVLimburg (€1,886)
3. PVV Fryslan (€528)

71

€13,054

50PLUS

5


1. 50PLUSpartij (€9,444)
2. 50PLUSFlevoland (€1,460)
3. 50PLUS-Overijssel (€575)

94

€11,860

DENK

4


1. DENK (€6,280)
2. Mahmut Sungur DENK (€918)
3. Ekrem Selimspahic (€332)

379

€7,630

SGP

5


1. SGP (€2,400)
2. SGP Zeeland (€1,378)
3. SGP provincie Gelderland (€1,109)

64

€5,087

Alliantie

2


1. Henriette van Hedel - Alliantie (€1,997)
2. Alliantie (€1,109)

36

€3,106

Mar 8th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend €492,771 and ran 5100 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

PvdA

40


1. Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) (€29,530)
2. PvdA Zuid-Holland (€21,949)
3. PvdA Brabant (€7,753)

551

€89,161

GroenLinks

22


1. GroenLinks (€73,497)
2. GroenLinks Zuid-Holland (€6,446)
3. GroenLinks Brabant (€1,608)

331

€86,412

VVD

45


1. VVD (€27,296)
2. Limburgse VVD (€11,098)
3. VVD Provincie Utrecht (€5,457)

842

€63,402

CDA

36


1. CDA Zuid-Holland (€13,977)
2. CDA Noord-Holland (€6,238)
3. CDA Brabant (€5,506)

623

€63,355

FvD

3


1. Forum voor Democratie -FVD (€23,618)
2. Thierry Baudet (€2,018)
3. Forum voor Democratie Zeeland (€100)

486

€25,736

D66

21


1. D66 Noord-Holland (€5,174)
2. D66 Zuid-Holland (€2,702)
3. D66 Provincie Utrecht (€2,363)

114

€23,701

BVNL

7


1. Belang van Nederland - BVNL (€20,461)
2. BVNL Gelderland (€419)
3. Arjan de Kok - BVNL (€226)

78

€21,610

SP

12


1. SP (€18,999)
2. Lilian Marijnissen (€769)
3. SP Noord-Brabant (€634)

227

€21,604

Volt Nederland

4


1. Volt Nederland (€8,310)
2. Volt Noord-Holland (€5,769)
3. Volt Zuid-Holland (€3,887)

791

€21,415

PvdD

14


1. Partij voor de Dieren (€11,896)
2. Partij voor de Dieren Zuid-Holland (€3,227)
3. Partij voor de Dieren Noord-Brabant (€1,335)

205

€21,068

Ja21

4


1. Ja21 (€9,188)
2. JA21 Noord-Holland (€2,874)
3. JA21 Drenthe (€267)

192

€12,460

ChristenUnie

18


1. ChristenUnie (€2,416)
2. ChristenUnie Flevoland (€1,857)
3. ChristenUnie-SGP Noord-Brabant (€1,500)

201

€10,254

BBB

7


1. BBB BoerBurgerBeweging (€7,815)
2. BBB Boerburgerbeweging Noord-Holland (€747)
3. BBB Boerburgerbeweging Limburg (€315)

48

€9,612

50PLUS

5


1. 50PLUSpartij (€6,807)
2. 50PLUSFlevoland (€771)
3. 50PLUS-Overijssel (€150)

49

€7,928

PVV

9


1. Geert Wilders (€4,651)
2. PVVLimburg (€1,559)
3. PVV Provincie Utrecht (€296)

40

€7,455

DENK

4


1. DENK (€2,978)
2. Mahmut Sungur DENK (€374)
3. Ekrem Selimspahic (€332)

252

€3,784

SGP

4


1. SGP (€1,201)
2. SGP Zeeland (€762)
3. SGP provincie Gelderland (€521)

47

€2,584

Alliantie

2


1. Alliantie (€1,077)
2. Henriette van Hedel - Alliantie (€153)

23

€1,230

Google

For Google platforms, data accessed via the Google Transparency Report provides exact spending on how much money was spent by parties in last 30 and 7 days.

Daily Spend

Feb 14th to Mar 15th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend €421,800 and ran 2237 ad copies on Google in this timeframe.

Number of Ads Top Spenders Total Spend

GroenLinks

126


1. GroenLinks (€89,900)
2. Stichting GroenLinks in de EU (€50)

€89,950

FvD

20


1. Forum voor Democratie (€82,550)

€82,550

D66

145


1. D66 (€50,650)

€50,650

Volt Nederland

988


1. Volt Nederland (€42,100)

€42,100

CDA

177


1. Christen Democratisch Appèl (€28,450)
2. Stichting statenfractie CDA Gelderland (€9,300)
3. CDA Doetinchem (€50)

€37,800

VVD

153


1. VVD (€17,950)
2. Stichting Liberaal Dordrecht (€8,900)
3. Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (€1,950)

€28,800

SP

39


1. SP (Socialistische Partij) (€26,300)

€26,300

BBB

145


1. Marc-Michel Strijker (€24,600)

€24,600

PvdA

20


1. Partij van de Arbeid (€11,250)

€11,250

JA21

20


1. Conservatieve Liberalen (€9,050)

€9,050

DENK

24


1. Politieke beweging DENK (€6,400)

€6,400

50PLUS

140


1. Stichting fractieondersteuning 50plus Flevoland (€4,000)
2. VLG (€2,200)

€6,200

PvdD

2


1. Partij voor de Dieren (€2,250)

€2,250

BVNL

25


1. Belang Van Nederland (€1,900)
2. Engel Huibert van Dalen (€250)

€2,150

ChristenUnie

213


1. ChristenUnie (€1,750)

€1,750

Mar 9th to 15th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend €287,050 and ran 1840 ad copies on Google in this timeframe.

Number of Ads Top Spenders Total Spend

GroenLinks

116


1. GroenLinks (€66,650)

€66,650

FvD

18


1. Forum voor Democratie (€63,150)

€63,150

D66

139


1. D66 (€41,750)

€41,750

CDA

168


1. Christen Democratisch Appèl (€28,100)
2. Stichting statenfractie CDA Gelderland (€4,800)

€32,900

VVD

132


1. VVD (€14,500)
2. Stichting Liberaal Dordrecht (€4,900)
3. Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (€800)

€20,200

Volt Nederland

747


1. Volt Nederland (€20,150)

€20,150

SP

30


1. SP (Socialistische Partij) (€13,850)

€13,850

BBB

133


1. Marc-Michel Strijker (€8,900)

€8,900

PvdA

18


1. Partij van de Arbeid (€4,750)

€4,750

JA21

20


1. Conservatieve Liberalen (€4,050)

€4,050

DENK

21


1. Politieke beweging DENK (€3,650)

€3,650

PvdD

2


1. Partij voor de Dieren (€2,250)

€2,250

50PLUS

67


1. VLG (€1,800)
2. Stichting fractieondersteuning 50plus Flevoland (€350)

€2,150

BVNL

25


1. Belang Van Nederland (€1,150)
2. Engel Huibert van Dalen (€250)

€1,400

ChristenUnie

204


1. ChristenUnie (€1,250)

€1,250

Combined Stats

Daily Spend

Total Spend

Digital Ads as Percentage of Total Budget

Meta vs. Google

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Overall

By Party

Mar 8th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Overall

By Party

Top Targeted Audiences

Here, we show the top targeted audiences for each party (ranked by amount of Euro spend). Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”.

Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 8th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Top Contested Audiences

Here, we show the top most contested audiences, i.e. where all parties have spent considerable amounts of money competing to reach voters with the same interests. Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”. In each row on the right hand side, you can see how much in total was spend on that specific target audience.

Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 8th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Age Targeting

Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 8th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 8th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Education Targeting

Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 8th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Job Targeting

Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 8th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

ZIP Code Targeting

The following maps show ZIP code targeting for a few parties that spend a lot on this kind of targeting method. It’s important to note that the spending here “overlaps”, i.e. one cannot sum up across all different ZIP codes as some targeted ZIP codes have a shared budget.

Feb 13th - Mar 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

VVD

CDA

ChristenUnie